1/14/02

Activities are on political groups' agendas

By Jessica Coomes
Daily Kent Stater

Students should have plenty of opportunities to voice their opinions this semester. The political activities some student organizations have planned are as diverse as the political ideas behind them.

D'Andra Mull, executive director of Undergraduate Student Senate, said one of the organization's main goals is to organize a task force of students to decrease noise ordinances.

If a weekend party becomes too loud, Kent city residents can call the task force, which will then contact the party, telling the participants if they don't quiet down, their neighbors could call the police. The goal is to have the task force step in instead of Kent city police.

By the end of January, Mull said she will meet with city officials and police, and by March she said she hopes to have the program implemented.

"We police our own parties rather than the Kent police," Mull said. "It's easier for us to talk to students than it is for the police."

Mull said she hopes to convince Kent residents to use the service by getting the word out in newspaper ads and by explaining the program door-to-door. But the success of the program, Mull said, depends on getting enough students to volunteer on the task force.

The Coalition for a Humane and New Global Economy plans to work with a university committee that will review the code of conduct. Last spring semester, the university adopted a code of conduct that ensures fair working conditions for products made with Kent State's logo. The document is up for review every year.

Coalition president Mike Pesa said the organization would like to see athletic and employee uniforms included in the code of conduct to be certain they are not made in sweatshops. Also the Coalition for a Humane and New Global Economy would like to make parts of the document more specific. This includes identifying the living wage that workers can live off of and deciding how to enforce environmental and health standards in factories.

"Sweatshops are extremely widespread around the world, and people have no idea what kind of horrors these people see every day," Pesa said. "The university has an obligation to not be complacent on that."

The Student Anti-Racist Action plans to continue developing sexual assault workshops that it will present to any group interested, including residence halls and orientation classes, said president Chris Fox.

The group started giving the workshops last spring semester, and the workshops address what sexual assault is and what to do if you have been assaulted or someone tells you they have been assaulted. Legal issues and resources for a survivor are also presented, Fox said.

"The issue of sexual assault is so overlooked in the college environment, but it is also important because it affects so many people," Fox said. "Since no one else is doing anything else about it, we feel it's our obligation to do something."

Fox said the workshops should be organized and ready to present by the end of February.

E-mail: jcoomes@kent.edu

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